The 1946-47 football season in Malta was opened on November 3, 1946 with the match between league champions Valletta FC and a Malta FA selection.

This game, between the league champions and a Representative XI, was played annually in aid of the Poppy Day Fund.

Usually a Service XI figured in the season curtain-raiser but that year the Malta Football Association decided to pair Valletta with its selection ahead of that season’s Christmas Tourney and then the Victory Cup which was due to be held in May and played between the national team and representatives of the three services.

Valletta were the best team on the islands but no one predicted that they would be beaten 5-1 by the national selection on the day even though one must say from the start that the score was rather flattering for the winners.

There was not such a big disparity between the two teams as the final score suggested.

The match attracted a huge crowd to the stadium and, as it turned out, it was very much worth their money because the season opener developed into a very keen contest.

Valletta were the first to attack. They raced past their opponents at will and in the opening ten minutes stormed and raged around the Reds’ penalty area.

During this period, when the national combination was still trying to find its feet, all the exchanges went in favour of Valletta and on two occasions it was the woodwork that denied the Citizens from scoring.

However, once this outburst was over, the MFA XI came more and more into the picture and it was not long before they started to expose their opponents’ weakness in defence.

Calleja’s big match

Valletta duo Sam Rodgers and Ġużi Demicoli, both big and sturdy fellows, were rather slow in recovery and they found it hard to contain the speed and enthusiasm of Ninu Calleja.

The young Naxxar Lions centre-forward played a blinder and by half-time he had already scored a brilliant hat-trick. His third goal was described in the local press as the best that season.

Buttigieg beat his direct opponent. He moved to the left, drawing the opposing defence with him. Then, at the precise moment he slipped the ball to Calleja who cheekily beat Doddy Calleja with a perfectly-placed ball well wide of the goalkeeper’s reach.

In the second half the Citizens came out fighting. They launched a series of attacks and scored a goal through Ġużi Vassallo.

They should have, on the run of play, reduced the margin further. Lady Luck, however, did not smile kindly on them.

It was a pity from Valletta’s point of view that Ninu Calleja was in such a devastating mood. Then still at the start of his career, he scored the fourth goal in such a way that he made it look so easy to beat the City defensive line.

Finally, Buttigieg closed the tally with a fifth goal from a free-kick. His slashing shot sailed past the City wall and into the top right-hand corner of the net.

This game augured well for the national team’s other commitments that season against Zabo-vresky, in the Christmas Tourney, and in the Victory Cup.

Ninu Calleja being greeted by Governor of Malta Robert Laycock before Malta’s first international match against Austria in 1956.